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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Australian Government to Ban Online Gambling?

There is already legislation in place to prevent online gambling in Australia. The legislation is similar to that in the US which prevents financial institutions from processing funds that are to be used for online gambling.

The Interactive Gambling Act (IGA) 2001, is the law that is in question. Until now the rules have been relatively relaxed and have not been enforced. If recent reports are proven to be correct, then this will be enforced. This law is similar to the UIGEA in America, in that it is seeking to stop online gambling as an attempt to raise revenue.

The IGA does not make it illegal for individuals to gamble online, that would be very difficult to regulate. The law specifically targets online gambling sites and is designed to make it significantly more difficult for Australians to find places to play.

Most online poker sites are located offshore, making it unlikely that they would honour the Australian law without significant pressure (as was applied to enforce the UIGEA in the US), so Australian poker players have been able to continue playing online unmolestered.

However, the Government's proposed filtering plan, if imposed, would make it significantly easier to enforce the IGA and leaked copies of the AMCA's blacklist of blocked sites seems to confirm that thats what they intend to do.

The Australian Federal Government is pushing forward with a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet for all Australians. This plan will waste tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and slow down Internet access.

Despite being almost universally condemned by the public, ISPs, State Governments, Media and censorship experts, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is determined to force this filter into your home.

So what should you do? The IGA is already law but I suggest you join me in opposing the proposed filtering plan or 'Clean Feed.' Here's some relevant website you should check out: